titles

I hate titling things. I mean you have no way to win. You either have to wait until you finish writing something and then you are left with the daunting task of compressing your newly finished masterpiece into a few words.
OR
You could title it before you finish, saving you from one horror only to give yourself another. If you start with a title it's like you've limited your self, tied yourself down to that title and you spend so much time trying to keep the story with in itself that you lose some of the original grandeur of the idea.

That is why I am now left with a novel that I have been working on for three years now sitting open on my desktop saved as "The Hilary, Tristan, and Colbey story, To be named." I have been struggling with those three words, 'to be named', through out the whole writing process, waiting I suppose for the perfect title to jump into existence. Alas, it hasn't and the elusive title has left me a nearly finished novel that I am quite proud of and headache from trying to give it a name.

This must be how mothers feel. She spends nine months with swollen ankles, a weird appetite, and a stomach the size of a beach ball and when it is all over she has to give a name to the accumulative result of those nine months of constant worry, work, and wonder. A name that will be people's first impression of this beautiful thing that she created. A name that will define that new masterpiece. A name that will, in essence, be what that child is. How do mothers do it? How do they always know who you are before they even see you, to the point that they feel confidant in the name they give you?

Do you see my problem, because it's a big one? Here I have this beautiful masterpiece that I made out of nothing and I still, at the end of three years constant thought, have no idea of what exactly it is.

writing quotes that I love

Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say. ~Sharon O'Brien

I try to leave out that parts that people skip ~Elmore Leonard

If there is a book you really want to read, but has been written yet, you must write it. ~ Unknown

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~Vladimir Nabakov

Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish. ~John Jakes
Writing is am exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. ~E.L. Doctorow

Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save them selves, to survive as individuals. Don Delillo

why I write

I love writing. I love that you start out with nothing of importance, a piece of paper and a pen, and in the end you have something beautiful. Something that is unique and special, that can touch people and change lives. I love how the words flow out of me like silk and turn my thoughts into something real and tangible. I love the feeling of accomplishment when you finish something you've been working on for what feels like forever. I love all of the worlds it opens up to me. When I write I don't have to be me, a normal, every-day, little girl who hasn't done anything really important (yet) from a town no one has ever heard of. When I write there are no limits or regulations, no expectations, and nothing to hold me back. I can be any one and any where I want to be. I love the power it gives me. The power to shape and change lives, even if they are only pretend lives. I love the escape it gives me. I love all the raw possibilities you have when you stat with a blank page that is just waiting for you to fill it.